521–530 of 1001 posts
There’s no more need for masks. Vaccinate if you want, or don’t. If you get sick, or not, that’s on you.
It’s the same deal with a lot of other illnesses- you vaccinate or take the risk. It’s been this way for decades in schools.
Disclosure: triple vaxx’d moderna
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and all the halfway measures we've taken haven't achieved their stated goals. You have some good points up until this one. Go to your local hospital and ask them how they'd like it if their case load went up by 2x due to a lack of "halfway measures." In some places, that will be OK, while in others, it will be utterly catastrophic. Obviously that doesn't justify ridiculous overreactions to unmasked toddlers, as you p…
There is no evidence that I am aware of which would indicate places with strict mandates (Boston or LA) did significantly better or worse than places that made such mandates illegal (Texas). The outbreak curves and percentages are basically the same, especially when you account for the population differences in age, obeasity, diabetes, etc. A red state might do worse at times, but is also more easily explained as a r…
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Or…grandpa can get vaccinated. I'd be more than happy to test and vaccinate in schools. In particular vaccinate. But having kids wear masks…which they don't do well, because they're kids…not like adults do it well either…is a fig leaf. It's not going to work. And you can see that from the massive infection rates in schools that have masks .
Of course all of our problems go away when you convince the remaining 40% of the population to get vaccinated. I'm actually in favor of doing away with masks and social distancing. Just create a nationwide policy that the unvaccinated will not be admitted or treated for COVID and we can all return to our daily lives.
[0]: https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/#ethnicity-gender-age
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I actually want to hear good reasons for avoiding vaccinations, because many people care a lot about that. I can understand immuno-compromised people, an underlying medical condition, for whom a vaccine may not work or may be dangerous. Undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer? Got it: vaccines won't help you (or anyone else) until you can get past the cancer. I don't agree with an argument from stand-my-ground,…
Nobody here is advocating for avoiding vaccinations so your entire point is moot.
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Also spreading it to their teachers, who are usually adults and who usually don't want to get deadly diseases and may not be willing to work without some precautions going towards their safety.
The virus is endemic, we are all going to get it sooner or later.
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Or…grandpa can get vaccinated. I'd be more than happy to test and vaccinate in schools. In particular vaccinate. But having kids wear masks…which they don't do well, because they're kids…not like adults do it well either…is a fig leaf. It's not going to work. And you can see that from the massive infection rates in schools that have masks .
Another thing I wonder about is what are the affects of wearing masks at young age and not getting usual amount of exposure to viruses and other germs. I remember reading here and elsewhere that early childhood exposure to germs builds a robust immune system. While my kid doesn’t wear mask in his class but his school is following very strict cleaning procedures. So he hasn’t gotten sick as much before pandemic. Maybe…
I believe that it's common for kids to wear masks during flu season in some countries. They probably have some relevant data.
I think there's a belief that strict adherence to vaccination and masks would get us to a place where we won't need masks all the time, and kids can resume their usual immune-system adventures. That might be less realistic than we might want. I don't know.
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I've asked my friends working in medicine the same thing. What if hospitals were to start turning away those who are willingly unvaccinated? I haven't been able to get a clear answer but the basic theme I hear is you can't, state law prohibits that. Of course the law can be changed, but what legislature is going to do that? This is where politics enters the fray. They'd rather kick the can down the road and bring in…
For hospitals it's the federal EMTALA law which makes it illegal for hospitals to deny emergency care on the basis of vaccination status. If a patient shows up with unstable vital signs then the hospital is required to at least stabilize them. For COVID-19 patients that's usually based on respiratory distress or low blood oxygen saturation. https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EMT...
Vaccines for Covid are available. Vaccines do not stop the spread of Covid. Vaccines do not stop you from getting Covid. Vaccines do reduce the probability of severe/fatal cases of covid. Masks are available. Most masks in most situations do little to stop the spread of Covid. Well fitted N95s are more effective. Getting vaccinated or wearing a mask is clearly a personal health decision. Vaccine mandates are ridiculo…
The vaccines still reduce the likelihood of infection and thus slow the spread of Covid. It's true their effectiveness against Omicron is reduced compared to prior variants.
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Yeah I don't think they are really saying that they absolutely don't work but that the evidence that they do is weak enough to justify removing the mandates. They address N95 mask in the article (did you read it) pointing out that they are more difficult to breath in and hinder communication more (I'll add my own point in that they are harder to keep a seal with which seems to be quite important according to the stud…
There are a couple of things happening. This 'they don't 100% work so we shouldn't even bother' bullshit .. is just that. Bullshit. What is the cost of masked students, it's the cost of the masks. Now granted our schools are, frankly, criminally underfunded. However that PPE could be supplied from outside the school's budget for those students that don't take care of the costs themselves. The other problem that i've…
They’re not, they’re one of the best funded schools in the world.
Funny to watch the Atlantic change directions on COVID over the last few months. I go back and forth on masks. In general I find them to be a minor inconvenience, although I believe they're more inconvenient for me than most because I'm blind and no matter what I do they always fog up my glasses. But while masks themselves are mildly inconvenient, harsh mask mandates and restrictions become much more of an annoyance…
bandaid over the nose and mask should stop your fogging. You can also use a little saliva on the lenses like they do in scuba diving. I usually just move the glasses a little further down my nose and that does like 95% of the solution.